A winter blast is settling in over northern Michigan, bringing accumulating snow and conditions more typical of January than April.

As much as two inches of fresh snow could blanket Cheboygan and neighboring towns before Sunday.

“Whats coming in is going to be mixed,” said Nick Schwartz, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord. “It will be rain and snow, sometimes more snow than rain and other times almost all rain.”

Temperatures for today and into tomorrow are expected to hover in the upper-30s, a far departure from spring in the minds of many northern Michigan residents.

“People are really sick of winter, so this is kind of depressing, but this kind of weather isn’t uncommon, Schwartz added. “April is a transitional month. We can have those warm spells that everybody loves or these cold fronts move through. It all depends on the jet stream.”

Once this weather clears out, conditions should become more seasonal across the region. The average daytime highs in early April hover in the mid-40, with the overnight lows dropping into the mid-20s.

“For next week we’re looking at a lot of mid- and even upper 40s,” said Schwartz. “That’s normal for April, although there is really no normal for weather in northern Michigan. ‘Normal’ that everyone wants to refer to is basically an average of extremes.”

Once the spring weather moves in, it doesn’t take long for things to warm up.

“Things can change pretty fast,” said Tim Locker, another meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Gaylord. “It doesn’t take long for the snow to melt and things can warm up pretty fast too. I’m sure you remember last year. We had a big snowstorm one weekend and we were seeing highs in the 80s two weeks later.”

According to Locker, the average daytime highs in mid-April are in the 50s. If the prediction of warmer weather comes to fruition, April could finish with a bang.